When the Devils Come Knocking
by Atolia
Summary: Starting a new school in his junior year is the least of Zuko Agni's worries. Rated T for Zuko and Azula's dirty mouths. No shipbashing please.


**Disclaimer: I don't own Avatar: the Last Airbender**

Summery: When Zuko and Azula Agni move in with their uncle, they think everything will work out fine. With their father in jail, the two of them have been getting along better and Azula's making better friends. Zuko's loosening up and making more friends. But just as things start looking up, Ty Lee and Mai, Azula's old friends come to visit. On top of that, their father's trial is coming up. Jinko, Azuko (sibling relationship only).

**Well, I've read a lot of Avatar school fics and I thought I would try one myself. So here goes!**

Zuko Agni groaned and rolled over in his bed. His alarm was blasting a song off the ipod docked there. It was the first day of his junior year and yet it didn't even register in his drowsy mind.

_I open my eyes. I try to see but I'm blinded by the white lights. I can't remember how. I can't remember why I'm lying here tonight. _

Zuko shoved his pillow over his head. _Shut up,_ he commanded his alarm. But the song kept playing. _Shit, _he cursed mentally.

_And I can't stand the pain. And I can't make it go away. No I can't stand the pain._

His sister walked into the room. Seeing that he was still asleep, she grabbed the pillow from his hands and promptly began beating him over the head with it while screaming, "Get up, you lazy ass! We're going to be late!"

_How could this happen to me? I made my mistakes. Got nowhere to run. The night goes on. It's not fading away. I'm sick of this life. I just wanna scream! How could this happen to me?_

Zuko sat up, rubbing his head, watching as Azula stomped from the room. High School started today. He looked around, forgetting for a moment where he was. Then it came back to him. His father was in jail. One of their old neighbors had witnessed a fight between the Agni siblings and their father. Azula had gotten away with a few bruises. Zuko, on the other hand, had to get a few dozen pieces of their china table removed from his back. Not that Dad had gotten away clean. Since their mother had died when they were little, their only living relative got full custody of both of them: Uncle Iroh.

_Everybody's screamin'. I try to make a sound, but no one hears me. I'm slippin' off the edge. I'm hangin' by a thread. I wanna start this over again. _

Zuko shut off the ipod and stuffed it into his bag. A new school for his junior year. Lovely. He sighed. Oh well. At least no one would know him. Zuko chose his friends carefully. They were few people that he trusted enough to call his friends. It was the consequence of growing up in an abusive household. He glanced at the picture on the nightstand next to his bed. It was of him and three other friends at Hershey Park on a school field trip: Mikki, Adianna and Alex. Zuko wasn't allowed to talk to them until after his father's trial was over. The jury might see it as a rehearsed testimony if they found out that the witnesses had been socializing with one of the sides. It was hard not to talk to them.

Azula, on the other hand, was a lot more social. Her problem was that she often made friends with the wrong sort of people. Take those two girls she'd befriended at her old middle school. Within a week of meeting them, the three were arrested for shoplifting. Zuko had paid her bail with his own money; good old Dad had refused to. After that it was a string of stealing, running away and fights. Azula went from a good student to the type people warned you about on the streets. She ditched school and smoked in the back alleys. Zuko hated it, but he never said anything to her; it wasn't like she listened to him anyway.

Zuko finished dressing and paused to check himself out in the mirror. Basically it was the same person that had stared back at him for the past week. Physically, he look the same as he had for years. His long, lithe frame was decorated with scars and muscle. His onyx black hair was a tangled mess that he didn't dare run a comb through. His golden-hazel eyes shone in the morning sun. _Mom's eyes._ Several people had told him that as well. He wore a forest-green shirt that said "_Keep Talking and I'll pretend to listen_" in gold lettering. He wore black jeans and a gold necklace with an upside down cross carefully molded with a viper coiled around it.

He headed next for the bathroom, brushing his teeth and washing the sleep out of his eyes with cold water. When he got downstairs, Azula and his uncle were already down there, eating. Muttering a quick,"Good morning" to both of them, he grabbed himself a banana and tosted some bread. After devouring both, he grabbed his car keys, his sister and his black shoes and headed out the door. Both Agni siblings were quiet on the way to school, staring off in their respective directions.

_Ba Sing Se High School,_ Zuko thought, _what a perfect nitche of Hell._

**A/N: I don't own Avatar: the Last Airbender. I also don't own the song at the begining. That song belongs to Simple Plan and is called "How Could This Happen To Me."**


End file.
